I received about 15 sets of this and some stuff called Gosen Pro-- they're not terrible synthetics but they stink to high hell. I have to keep them in a closed off container. If I do string any frames with them, I leave the string out-doors for a week prior.

Stringing:It’s cake in this frame except for the jam up that is the tie offs—can be frustrating if you don’t know what you’re doing

Groundies:
Extreme ball pocketing-- coming from 56lbs I actually uttered a rare "holy sh*t" when hitting my first forehand. The dwell time is significantly increased. Definitely a spin oriented setup. If you so desire, you can rip the ball high only to watch it dip at the baseline. Great for setting up points playing singles. Although it took some getting used to, it’s pretty easy to drive the ball flat as well because the frame pockets so well. The biggest downside I could find is that small adjustments and poor technique make this setup a cannon. Also, you have to be careful of your trajectory when paying doubles. Going for extra spin can cost you if the net man knows how to poach.

Serving:
It was definitely a challenge for me to adjust but eventually I figured it out. PRACTICE WITH THIS FIRST if it’s your first time stringing like this. Great setup for hitting spin serves. The extra pocketing/ lower tension allows you to jump serves. While the access to power is definitely there, flat was very difficult for me to achieve. Definitely need to practice a lot more with this setup.

Volleys:
I hate to give the award to a brand new experimental poly setup but to date and for my style of game, this is the best volleying setup I’ve ever played with. The combination of the strings and the frame just works for me and my normally horrendous volleys become a weapon. The only thing I can compare this to is the feel of gut/poly. Comfort is there, the string responds snappy and crisp. The only reason I prefer this to gut/poly is because it is a touch less powerful and allows me more margin of error when going for winners.

Tension maintenance:
What can I say, it’s low tension to begin with. There is a noticeable drop in tension after the first few hours when the frame settles. The next big change is once you catch notches and the strings start to shift—a la starting to go dead. Fortunately, it’s not as glaringly obvious as Lux Rough @ 60 after a few hours or the change in Dunlop Black Widow.

Durability:
8.5 hours of play, mostly doubles. Not terrible for a 16x19 frame! I was disturbingly surprised that the strings simply would not pop even though they were ¾ of the way notched. They just seem to hang on shot after shot.

Groundstrokes: 4/5 Very spin based
Serves: 3.5/5 Subjective, I had great difficulty serving with this
Volleys: 5/5
Spin: 4/5 when fresh
Power:3.5/5 Only because you HAVE to use spin
Comfort: 5/5
Tension: 4/5
Durability:4/5

Hahahha 23. Not my usual choice of hitting partner but he is one of the locals at that club. He's got odd strokes and worse footwork than I do (didn't think that was possible) but somehow is a 4.0 Go figure

Stringing:
Both frames at 49 reference tension using the "Jet" Method. The 18x20 can be a bit of a pain in the butt to weave with B5E but otherwise no real difficulties. Something in the back of my mind is telling me I should have probably strung the 18x20 a bit looser but we'll see how it plays.

Initial impressions:
I had the chance to hit with both of these frames for about half an hour each tonight with a high level partner (5.0 former D1 athlete). Some really unexpected results here.

16x19
Much softer/ more pocketing than the TB/PL II. I didn't think that was possible but I wasn't particularly happy with the initial feel of the ball-- it just wasn't predictable. Strings were shifting and I was yet again thinking "Cut job, string tighter." Once the strings settled a bit and I stuck a beefier vibration dampener on it, things got better. Disgusting access to spin if you step in and hit the ball properly. My partner hits with a ridiculous ammt. of spin for starters; the type of shots that take off at a high angle, look like they're sailing long, then dive-bomb into the ground and explode up-- it's tough to work with especially in dim lighting on har-tru courts with balls fast approaching the color forest green. Striking the ball properly, though, I saw the same results on my strokes (at a lower launch angle) which was immensely satisfying. Although he was able to handle it, the ball was at shoulder/ head height for him. Again, small errors = rocket launcher. Overall, a very comfortable hit. The downside--the freaking strings are already notched...no bueno

18x20
I was having a tough time returning my partner's balls consistently so I figured I'd try the 18x20. Totally different feel @ the same tension. The frame went from a cradling, soft, spin machine to a much stiffer control freak. In the 16x19 you can feel the strings shifting and snapping back. In the 18x20 it's just solid contact. What I made up for in consistency, I lost in ball depth. Previously I was hitting on or near the baseline but with the tighter string pattern I saw more of my balls landing short @ the service line. In conjunction with ball depth I thought I noticed a decrease in pace and spin overall even though my partner seemed to disagree. He said that when I drove the ball deep into the court, it seemed to have just as much spin. No notching which is good.

UPDATE: 3.3.12

16x19:
HOLY FRIJOLES...I'm having a panic attack here. I'm convinced this must be a fluke. Why am I freaking out? If I would give up now on this review I'd have to admit that WeissCannon has made a crapola product. Had an absolutely terrible hit tonight-- the other kid couldn't keep the ball in past 3 shots (including the feed). Anyways. The B5E didn't really play any better tonight than it did the first time I hit it. In fact, it played 100x better the first time. Strings were moving around, balls were sailing, and the only shot I seemed to be able to hit was flat. If I had to describe the stringbed tonight in one word, I would use "sloppy." Just a terrible, horrible, hit. Furthermore, with less than 2 hours total on the frame, the strings are SHOT. They're not only moving around like crazy but notched more than half way though. If I hit with someone with even mild spin production, they'll pop within 15...

I'm calling a mulligan here. Total.Dver but I'll be upping tension. **shakes head solemnly**
Best pic I could get but not even the worst of the notching...

REVIEW POSTPONED
Review postponed for 18x20 as well-- I sold the frame
Groundies:TBA

Anyway, what's your playing background? While you might hate on your footwork, the thing I noticed immediately was that you're light on your feet.

Click to expand...

I've been playing for a long time but never took tennis seriously until college. I suppose you could say my greatest "accomplishment" was getting the opportunity to play for Stony Brook University. I had my shot as a walk on then got into it with the coach. Unfortunately, I was a hot-head back then which = bye bye. Stopped playing for a bunch of years and now I'm back. I currently play USTA 4.0-4.5. Unfortunately, I'm stuck at 4.0 thanks to very poor 8.0 mixed showings and a slew of inconsistent partners for mens (attendance wise). I'm hoping to change that this year. I've tried to cut out all the bs, messing around and have been working on staying consistent and not trying to pull the trigger all of the time.

Oh and I also play professional beach tennis, haha. Definitely has changed the way I volley

Stringing:
Fairly soft poly. I would put it somewhere in the middle. A little bit more stretchy than your average poly and it slides through when weaving pretty easy. Nothing crazy with the coil memory. The string stays true to its advertised diameter. 1.23 all the way before tensioning

Groundies:
I'll be updating this further but the feel of these strings is pretty interesting. Even though they're strung at the same 49lbs reference, they feel a bit stiff-- almost like I want to string them even lower. I found my backhand to be much much more effective than my forehand. Particularly backhand return of serve. In the hour of doubles that I played with this frame, I couldn't seem to find a rhythm on my forehand side. I'll have to hit more to make a better analysis. I also got the chance to hit some singles with these strings and I can now comfortably say that I prefer them for flat hitting by a mile. The response on a coiled flat stroke is linear in the sense that the harder you hit, the faster it goes. On the other hand, I didn't find the same results for spin. The more spin I tried to put on the ball, the further out it went, haha.

Serving:
I seem to be able to serve really well with this string. Flat is solid. It's not gut/poly but it definitely has a nice response off the string. Where this string really shined was in my second serve. I was able to hit with confidence and place the ball where I wanted on the line. Felt really great on spin serves. I noticed that the balls didn't necessarily dive bomb like a kick serve but drove forwards and up.

Volleys:
Not a huge fan here. There are other strings out there that volley better. Two adjectives I would use are "snappy" and "stiff." There's not much give in these strings so you get a fairly crisp response.

Tension maintenance:
Over the three-ish hours I played this frame, the string bed didn't change one bit. Still nice and tight response from the string bed.

Durability:
Won't know since I cut them out-- no notching though so I'm guessing favorable.

Final thoughts:
For the special price that TW sold these strings for, they're definitely worth the buy for the extra poly. I mean, common, how often can you get a set of decent string for 3.50? My suspicion, though is that these strings would perform very well in a hybrid of sorts. My next string job might just be a gut/poly combination since the mains should slide beautifully across the bomber.

Stringing:
Gaucho may not be the best natural gut out there but at 14.00 a set, one can't complain too much. This particular half set had a particularly even coating, no burrs, kinks, twists etc. Stringing it in the mains is cake provided you set your clamps right. Stringing it in the crosses... now that's a different story. SS, as always, is pretty easy to string. Just to make sure, I waxed the mains to reduce friction.

Note: I've played this setup many times in both this frame and my prestige mids and have always enjoyed it. I took a gamble and strung this 3 lbs lower than my usual. Consequently, my first reaction upon hitting was "Bah, the gut needs to be tighter." 15 minutes later it earned a coveted spot in my bag and sat there for 2 weeks. Recently though, I've been playing with lower tension poly and one night switched to this stick purely because I was tired/ sore from other things and it hit like magic.

Groundies:
With my style of strokes, this setup is NOT for slow hitting. I really have to dial the ball in and work on spin production when dealing with fed balls. Similarly to the low tension poly-- little mistakes in angle/ taking the ball late translate to ball launch. I definitely have noticed, though, that ever since I've been hitting the lower tensioned poly I've found this frame easier and easier to play. Spin is good, flat is great. When you set up correctly and take a big rip, the ball comes off the strings like a missile. Similarly, you'll be surprised sometimes that balls are clipping the baseline when they felt long.

Serving:
Yeaaaah Buddy! This setup is by far my best serving combination. Extra 10-15mph on my flat serve + all the comfort in the world. Great access to topspin serves too. Again, not really a fan of the slow serves. I tend to hit them long

Volleys:
Great feel, great pop, very easy to drive the ball deep. There's a reason gut has been the S+V choice for the ages. It plays fantastic at the net with the extra pocketing. My only issue is that sometimes the pop can be a bit too much. Although I'm getting better, I'm not as comfortable at the net as I am at the baseline and those small errors can cost me when trying to put the ball away.

Tension maintenance:
It's gut. It's awesome. Duh... Racquet has been sitting in my bag for 2 weeks with intermittent hitting and still feels great. Tension hasn't really changed after the first normal dip. SS also happens to be my favorite control/tension poly and holds up well in this frame

Durability:
I've got about 1-1.5 hours of doubles on this frame and so far so good. One small unravel by the 3rd cross from the bottom (no where near ball contact) and one really small strand coming loose in the sweet spot but I suspect it's more from the quality of the gut/ me picking at it than wear and tear. Update: Hit some serves with it last night and I'm starting to see more unravelling. I'll definitely have to try this combination with some tonic @ a higher tension next time.

Good question, I'm not quite sure. I can string a typical racquet in 20-25 minutes if I speed along but I rarely do. I enjoy stringing so I take my time with it. I haven't timed myself with this new method yet but I'll make sure to do so next time

Yeah. Serves are absolutely killer with that setup and setting up points is a lot easier when the ball comes back with a weak return. I've really enjoyed playing doubles with it.

I've been playing with the Gaucho which works great for me but I might splurge and try using tonic next time I string a frame. Once I get through my string of playtests (and pick up a steady job) I'll come back to it.

Yeah, I've read great reviews about it as a main. Eventually I'm going to string up a b5e/ OGSM and try that out.

I used to play a full bed of SS in my prestige mids so I expected the low power. What I didn't expect was how loose the string bed felt in the FXP tour at first. Who knows, it could have been that I haven't hit with my buddy in a while. I'll keep playing with it but I think I'm going to string the 18x20 a touch lower if I go for another full bed. I also get the crazy feeling that B5E would play very nicely with Bomber as a cross. Even though I haven't hit it yet it feels softer, slick, and could supply the extra pop. PL II might be another option.

As long as you're play testing frames with the string experiment, try one of my Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde frames-Dunlop 300s that I've tuned--theyre stable, heavy enough to get adaquate plow through, offer access to excellent spin due to the open pattern and low SW. Moreover, I've flared the butt which aids in torque, especially on 1hbhs if you have one. Plus theyve got that classic box beam. I'll mail you one if you're interested.
I think people might be interested in a playtest from someone who knows what he's talking about showing that you can take a solid platform frame and make it play better than the newest $200 frame with a high quality string job and some well engineered modifications. And I'm no engeneer if you catch my drift.
I've strung them full bed co-focus JET 48x52 and had them offer more control than a Prestige 18x20 and strung them Tour Bite 52x51 ish and seen more spin than any frame I've held, with equal rocket launching capabilities if you're late on the ball with. Cheers, and thanks for what looks to be another valuable thread.

Thanks for the encouragement. What series 300 are they? I've hit with a few in the past but never had the chance to really play them. Feel free to shoot me more details in an e-mail. I'd love to hear more about it.

Stringing:
In a coil it feels harsh but as soon as you unravel it you realize how soft this string really is. Soft but with a serious edge. It reminds me of a black TourBite. Not particularly finger friendly but certainly better than some of it's stiffer counterparts.

Groundies:
Very clean. This setup jives really well with this frame. The response of the ball is somewhere in between the huge dwell time feeling of low strung poly and the crispness of a tighter strung bed. A lot of feel on the ball. The softness of the string really shines when you're returning big shots. Spin is definitely there and so is the pop for hitting flat. It's official. After putting about 3.5ish hours on this frame, I really, really, really, like this string. It offers me everything I've been looking for in this setup. Access to spin is easy and plow through is there. I can hit through the ball to drive it or I can float it up only to dive bomb on the baseline. Flat strokes leave something to be wanted on the pure trajectory and bounce of the ball but they get the job done without discomfort to my arm = win.

Serving:
Again, another place where the softness of the string shines. Serves have a great feeling even when hitting them in the upper hoop. Some nice pop (although not quite gut/poly) and definitely some good spin. I wouldn't rate this string in the top 5 spin setups I've played but it definitely would make the top 10. I think what I enjoy most is the pure comfort of hitting balls with these. I must say that as the string gets looser, power becomes ample. I topped out tonight on a radar gun at 117mph in. It. Was. Awesome. Again, as the strings loosen up and wear down, the ball does become harder to place on serves. Where it makes up for it is on the increase in mph. Not necessarily the best tradeoff for some.

Volleys:
Does what it should. Volleys are solid and comfortable. Nice measure of control and ease of backspin. I'd say it's middle of the road; definitely solid. As the string softens up and loses tension, you'll find that volleys pocket a touch more.

Tension maintenance:
So far so good. The pure "every-ball-dips-in" magic is gone after 3.5 hours but it's taken on a different role. The string pockets a touch more as it loses tension but is still very comfortable and definitely playable

Durability:
3.5h of hitting and doubles and the string is half notched. Most of the damage was done tonight but I also put 2.5 hours of good, solid, hitting in.

Final thoughts: Frankly, after having such a nice hitting night, I'm a bit pissed that I didn't try Tourna strings earlier. I'm really impressed by this string. I am a little hesitant to say that (for my game) it's a better rendition of Dunlop Black Widow. They both exhibit a soft construction with sharp edges, high propensity for spin and comfort. I really enjoyed BW but found that A) it popped way too quickly and B) that it lost tension terribly fast if it didn't pop. While I certainly don't mind restringing, I still expect at least 5-8 hours out of a poly. Black Widow wasn't able to give me that or I would own a reel. I was able to compare this stringbed to a fresh frame of BHBR 17 and found them very similar. What I did notice is that the B7 is softer as a whole and after having been played lacked that "dip at the last second and catch the line" quality. Fresh BHBR was awesome-- Nothing seemed to go out. Having said that, I'm still testing both and really want to see what the end-game of this poly looks like. At this point, I can see 5 hours no problem of quality play time and if I get more, I might just have to buy a reel...

Ack, it popped. Hit nicely until the end but it popped. I'm going to have to play more of this string hoping that it'll give me a little more out of it (durability wise) but otherwise it lasted approximately 4.5-5 hours. Pic below

Groundstrokes: 4.5/5. This string fits my game fantastically. My only concern is that if you catch an angle, the ball launches
Serves: 4/5
Volleys: 4/5
Spin: 4/5
Power: 4/5. At this tension, it has the potentialt o be a cannon
Comfort: 5/5 For a full bed of poly, I'm really, truly, impressed
Tension: 3.5/5 It's still good but the playing characteristics have changed.
Durability:.3.5/5